Salon.com > Mike Pencehttp://www.salon.com
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 21:00:00 +0000enhourly1Two cheers for Nikki Haley: Bringing down the Confederate flag is laudable — but not nearly enoughhttp://www.salon.com/2015/06/23/two_cheers_for_nikki_haley_bringing_down_the_confederate_flag_is_laudable_but_not_nearly_enough/
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/23/two_cheers_for_nikki_haley_bringing_down_the_confederate_flag_is_laudable_but_not_nearly_enough/#commentsTue, 23 Jun 2015 19:02:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=14000179In the less than a week since Dylann Roof murdered nine human beings in an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, the discussion within U.S. politics has revealed, with an unusual degree of clarity, the difference between those Americans who are willing to at least acknowledge the legacy of Southern white supremacy, and those who are not. This is a good thing, and long overdue. As Rebecca Traister wrote in a brilliant piece for the New Republic last week, we Americans, in many ways, “are not better than we were.” With all of our self-congratulating references to “post-racial” society, it’s about time we recognized the ways we haven’t changed.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/06/23/two_cheers_for_nikki_haley_bringing_down_the_confederate_flag_is_laudable_but_not_nearly_enough/feed/32Indiana mayor comes out as gay in moving editorial: “It’s just a fact of life, like having brown hair”http://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/indiana_mayor_comes_out_as_gay_in_moving_editorial_it%e2%80%99s_just_a_fact_of_life_like_having_brown_hair/
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/indiana_mayor_comes_out_as_gay_in_moving_editorial_it%e2%80%99s_just_a_fact_of_life_like_having_brown_hair/#commentsTue, 16 Jun 2015 17:20:00 +0000Jenny Kutnerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13993741It seems there has been at least one upside to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's decision to sign a controversial religious freedom law earlier this year: It's gotten LGBTQ people and allies riled up and showing even more public support for equal rights. Some of that support has come from unexpected places -- including the mayor's office in conservative South Bend, Indiana.

First-term Democratic mayor Pete Buttigieg came out as gay in a stirring editorial on Monday, taking a public stand against Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act and expressing support for nationwide marriage equality. Nothing that his inclination is to remain private about his personal life, Buttigieg explained why he still believes it's important for him to openly identify as gay while he's in office:

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/indiana_mayor_comes_out_as_gay_in_moving_editorial_it%e2%80%99s_just_a_fact_of_life_like_having_brown_hair/feed/13Indiana Gov. Mike Pence sends welcome letter to Indy Pride festival — but he left something outhttp://www.salon.com/2015/06/03/indiana_gov_mike_pence_sends_welcome_letter_to_indy_pride_festival_but_he_left_something_out/
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/03/indiana_gov_mike_pence_sends_welcome_letter_to_indy_pride_festival_but_he_left_something_out/#commentsWed, 03 Jun 2015 20:45:00 +0000Jenny Kutnerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13982155Indiana Gov. Mike Pence sure has a long way to go if he ever wants to get in the LGBT community's good graces. (For the record, it doesn't seem as if this is something that interests the Republican governor much, but we'll let that slide for the moment.)

Responding to backlash over his decision to sign a controversial religious freedom law that threatens LGBT rights, Pence attempted to garner a little goodwill among his critics this week, issuing a letter to the LGBT organization Indy Pride welcoming people to its annual pride festival. There's just one hitch: Pence's letter totally neglects to mention anything having to do with the LGBT community, save and except for his use of the word "pride" in addressing the organization.

"On behalf of the people of Indiana, welcome to Indianapolis," the letter, which is addressed to an Indianapolis-based organization, reads. "I am confident that those of you who traveled from out of state will come to know our famous Hoosier Hospitality."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/06/03/indiana_gov_mike_pence_sends_welcome_letter_to_indy_pride_festival_but_he_left_something_out/feed/6Rick Scott’s Obamacare debacle: Florida Man traps himself in wholly unnecessary Medicaid fighthttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/20/rick_scott%e2%80%99s_obamacare_debacle_florida_man_traps_himself_in_wholly_unnecessary_medicaid_fight/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/20/rick_scott%e2%80%99s_obamacare_debacle_florida_man_traps_himself_in_wholly_unnecessary_medicaid_fight/#commentsMon, 20 Apr 2015 15:59:00 +0000Simon Maloyhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13940630Rick Scott has done everything in his power as the Republican governor of Florida to make sure that the Affordable Care Act does not work as intended in his state. Like a good many of his GOP colleagues around the nation, he rejected federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility and he refused to let the state set up its own insurance marketplace. But Scott took his opposition even further and actually pushed through laws that made it harder for the state to negotiate with insurance companies on premiums for certain types of insurance plans. He also made it more difficult for people to receive assistance from Obamacare “navigators” when shopping for insurance plans on the federal marketplace. And then, after setting up all those roadblocks to the law’s success, Scott had the nerve to attack the law for not performing as advertised.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/20/rick_scott%e2%80%99s_obamacare_debacle_florida_man_traps_himself_in_wholly_unnecessary_medicaid_fight/feed/64Indiana governor’s approval rating plummets after disastrous anti-gay “religious freedom” billhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/13/indiana_governors_approval_rating_plummets_after_disastrous_anti_gay_religious_freedom_bill/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/13/indiana_governors_approval_rating_plummets_after_disastrous_anti_gay_religious_freedom_bill/#commentsMon, 13 Apr 2015 22:28:00 +0000SKaufmanhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13936187Indiana Governor Mike Pence -- who frequently refers to himself as "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order" -- believed that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) would mobilize his conservative base. Instead, it created a backlash that has effectively torpedoed the Republican's chance at a national office.

According to a poll conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), signing the RFRA has led even led to a significant erosion in popularity in Indiana. As recently as February of this year, Governor Pence enjoyed a 62 percent approval score. Since the passage of the RFRA, however, his unfavorable rating has crept up to 53 percent, while his favorable rating plummeted to 38 percent.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/13/indiana_governors_approval_rating_plummets_after_disastrous_anti_gay_religious_freedom_bill/feed/115Corporate America’s equal-rights farce: The truth behind its Indiana oppositionhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/11/corporate_americas_equal_rights_farce_the_truth_behind_its_indiana_opposition_partner/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/11/corporate_americas_equal_rights_farce_the_truth_behind_its_indiana_opposition_partner/#commentsSat, 11 Apr 2015 17:00:00 +0000Jacob Sugarmanhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13934418Last week, corporate America appeared to take a rare stand on principle. After Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a law permitting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, various companies expressed outrage and tried to position themselves as bold defenders of social justice.

There was just one little problem: Many of the same companies have been donating to the public officials who have long opposed the effort to outlaw such discrimination. That campaign cash has flowed to those politicians as they have very publicly led the fight against LGBT rights.

Pence provides a perfect example. During his congressional career, he led the GOP's fight against a federal proposal to extend civil rights protections to LGBT people, arguing that they are not "entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities." He also supported a ban on same-sex marriage, voted against the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and argued that legislation to prevent companies from discriminating against gay and lesbian employees would "wage war on the free exercise of religion in the workplace."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/11/corporate_americas_equal_rights_farce_the_truth_behind_its_indiana_opposition_partner/feed/53Secrets of the hate-pizza revolution: Indiana’s dreadful culture-war weekhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/secrets_of_the_hate_pizza_revolution_indianas_dreadful_culture_war_week/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/secrets_of_the_hate_pizza_revolution_indianas_dreadful_culture_war_week/#commentsSat, 04 Apr 2015 15:45:00 +0000Erin Keanehttp://www.salon.com/?p=13928040In Indiana this week, it was the worst of times and – no, wait; it was just the worst of times. This was the week of “hate pizza,” one of the weirdest and most revealing non-stories of recent American history, in which a small-town businesswoman’s ill-considered response to a reporter’s hypothetical question became headline news. It was also the week when a 33-year-old Indiana woman named Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for ending her own pregnancy, in the most dramatic application to date of a recent wave of anti-abortion “feticide” laws. Both these Hoosier news stories, with their misunderstood and/or persecuted female protagonists, represent new plot twists in the long-running culture war that underlies America’s political divisions. But one of them has ominous and far-reaching consequences, and it’s the other one that became a huge social-media phenomenon. I won’t even pretend to make you guess which is which.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/secrets_of_the_hate_pizza_revolution_indianas_dreadful_culture_war_week/feed/201It’s the culture war, stupid: Why identity is at the heart of Indiana’s “religious freedom” fighthttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/its_the_culture_war_stupid_why_identity_and_symbolism_are_at_the_heart_of_indianas_fight_over_gay_rights/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/its_the_culture_war_stupid_why_identity_and_symbolism_are_at_the_heart_of_indianas_fight_over_gay_rights/#commentsSat, 04 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13927866Although he is one of my favorite pundits, The Week’s Michael Brendan Dougherty is also a devout Catholic who tends to lean conservative on economics. So when it comes to the political arguments of any given news cycle, we more often than not disagree. But while that’s been the case with the contentious “religious freedom” law recently passed (and more recently amended) in Indiana, I do think Dougherty’s Tuesday column about the controversy made a point that has otherwise gone under-appreciated.

It’s an obvious one, too. A reminder that, to paraphrase Orwell, the hardest truths to remember are often the ones staring you in the face. What Dougherty understands is that the kerfuffle that consumed Indiana — and, to a lesser degree, Arkansas — during the past week was not about the Constitution, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s 2016 ambitions or partisan politics. It was about symbolism and the culture war; it’s really as simple as that.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/its_the_culture_war_stupid_why_identity_and_symbolism_are_at_the_heart_of_indianas_fight_over_gay_rights/feed/130Right-wing Christianity teaches bigotry: The ugly roots of Indiana’s new anti-gay lawhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/right_wing_christianity_teaches_bigotry_the_ugly_roots_of_indianas_new_anti_gay_law_partner/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/right_wing_christianity_teaches_bigotry_the_ugly_roots_of_indianas_new_anti_gay_law_partner/#commentsSat, 04 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000Jacob Sugarmanhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13928240 Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act is so obviously structured to enable discrimination against LGBTQ people that quotes from the Onion and the governor’s office are almost indistinguishable.

Much has been made of the fact that Indiana’s law pushes beyond the bounds set by the federal law of the same name. It explicitly grants religious personhood to for-profit businesses. It also expands religious immunity to disputes between private individuals. The combination should make it difficult for those who are harmed by discrimination or other “religiously motivated” behavior to obtain redress in civil court.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/04/right_wing_christianity_teaches_bigotry_the_ugly_roots_of_indianas_new_anti_gay_law_partner/feed/521This is how Indiana Gov. Mike Pence wins: Moral superiority, “religious freedom,” social media hypocrisy and the problem with #BoycottIndianahttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/this_is_how_indiana_gov_mike_pence_wins_moral_superiority_religious_freedom_social_media_hypocrisy_and_the_problem_with_boycottindiana/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/this_is_how_indiana_gov_mike_pence_wins_moral_superiority_religious_freedom_social_media_hypocrisy_and_the_problem_with_boycottindiana/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2015 23:01:00 +0000davedaleyhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13927082This morning, members of the Indiana General Assembly and a selection of Indianapolis business leaders appeared at a press conference to announce amendments to the RFRA that Gov. Mike Pence signed into law last week. The changes represent a limited victory for supporters of human rights. If you think the ill-conceived, celebrity-endorsed consumer boycott of Indiana had anything to do with the alteration of the law, you should pay closer attention. In particular, pay attention to who stood next to the legislators at this morning’s press conference. The actual events that have unfolded in the past week tell a different story.

Pence and the Indiana Legislature passed and signed an unneeded law with outrageous potential for abuse. Though the bill does not mention LGBTQ people, its timing, following on the heels of the judicial establishment of legal same-sex marriage in Indiana and, before that, the failure of the state’s marriage amendment, is suspect at best. But the real goals of this law were otherwise, and chances are, if you advocated a boycott, you helped accomplish at least one of them.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/this_is_how_indiana_gov_mike_pence_wins_moral_superiority_religious_freedom_social_media_hypocrisy_and_the_problem_with_boycottindiana/feed/174The right’s ridiculous new terror: How Mike Huckabee and others are fighting “homofascism”http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/the_right_faces_a_ridiculous_new_menace_how_mike_huckabee_and_others_are_fighting_homofascism/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/the_right_faces_a_ridiculous_new_menace_how_mike_huckabee_and_others_are_fighting_homofascism/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2015 19:29:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13927065Earlier today, I spent a good chunk of time combing through the right-wing media. I was hoping to get a handle on how the conservative movement was responding to the nationwide backlash that’s followed Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence’s decision to sign a so-called religious liberty bill that critics see as anti-gay. What I discovered while reading and listening to the hot takes of the American right may shock you. It turns out there’s a specter haunting the United States today. It is a militant gay rights movement, which some conservatives call “homofascism,” and it is fearsome indeed.

According to people like right-wing talk radio personality Tammy Bruce (who identifies as lesbian), homofascism’s power and its boldness are both on the rise. “For me, as a gay woman, it remains shocking,” she told Fox New’s Tucker Carlson, who once bragged about assaulting a gay person. “The gay liberals have turned into bullies,” Bruce fretted, “when our work is to stop that kind of behavior.” She compared these bullies to fascists and a pack of wolves. Carlson looked on and listened, his face racked with concern.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/the_right_faces_a_ridiculous_new_menace_how_mike_huckabee_and_others_are_fighting_homofascism/feed/193The right’s “freedom” meltdown: Why GOP still doesn’t get what liberty actually meanshttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/republicans_fail_on_freedom_why_the_gop_still_doesnt_get_what_liberty_really_means/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/republicans_fail_on_freedom_why_the_gop_still_doesnt_get_what_liberty_really_means/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13926107When liberals and Democrats suffer an especially bitter political defeat, the loss is usually followed by a round or two of finger-pointing, self-flagellation and near-existential dread. The ritual may be necessary, for the sake of catharsis and internal cohesion. But the consensus reached by the end of the fight rarely lives long enough to make it to the next campaign.

That being said, there are some exceptions. Bill Clinton, for example, was probably right to think Democrats wouldn’t win in the immediate post-Reagan era without moving to the right. (Whether that was the moral thing to do is, obviously, a different story.) Similarly, Howard Dean was onto something when he pushed for a 50-state strategy after two straight losses to George W. Bush.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/republicans_fail_on_freedom_why_the_gop_still_doesnt_get_what_liberty_really_means/feed/179Indiana’s highway to hell: Welcome to the sick new corporate orderhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/indianas_highway_to_hell_welcome_to_the_sick_new_corporate_order/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/indianas_highway_to_hell_welcome_to_the_sick_new_corporate_order/#commentsThu, 02 Apr 2015 12:00:00 +0000davedaleyhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13926240The Indiana Toll Road begins at the Illinois border, just west of Hammond, and runs past a series of cities which have been hard-hit by the collapse of American manufacturing. They include Gary, where most of the factories have long since closed (its most famous export nowadays is the Jackson family); South Bend, which has lost one-fourth of its population since the Studebaker plant and others shut down; and Elkhart, known for manufacturing band instruments and recreational vehicles.

The Toll Road was privatized in 2006 to great fanfare, but the new owner has since gone bankrupt – the victim of bad judgement, a bad swaps deal, and a struggling economy. The winning bid in 2006 was $3.8 billion, $1 billion higher than the next highest offer. The new offer is $5.72 billion. Has this property, located in an economically challenged state, really appreciated by more than 50 percent? Or is something else going on?

The Indiana Toll Road is more than a highway. It is an infinite loop through the neoliberal world order, the mirror of a recursive economy in which every step toward corporatization creates more hardship – and every increase in hardship calls for more corporatization. Indiana is winning headlines today for enshrining bigotry into law in the name of religious freedom. But its toll road fiasco deserves a headline of its own.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/02/indianas_highway_to_hell_welcome_to_the_sick_new_corporate_order/feed/13The right’s made-up God: How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesushttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/the_rights_made_up_god_how_bigots_invented_a_white_supremacist_jesus/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/the_rights_made_up_god_how_bigots_invented_a_white_supremacist_jesus/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 21:15:00 +0000bzeffhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925366Just in time for Holy Week, the State of Indiana has passed a new Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law explicitly permits for-profit corporations from practicing the “free exercise of religion” and it allows them to use the “exercise of religion” as a defense against any lawsuits whether from the government or from private entities. The primary narrative against this law has been about the potential ways that small businesses owned by Christians could invoke it as a defense against having to, for instance, sell flowers to a gay couple for their wedding.

Any time right-wing conservatives declare that they are trying to restore or reclaim something, we should all be very afraid. Usually, this means the country or, in this case, the state of Indiana is about to be treated to another round of backward time travel, to the supposedly idyllic environs of the 1950s, wherein women, and gays, and blacks knew their respective places and stayed in them. While the unspoken religious subtext of this law is rooted in conservative anxieties over the legalization of same-sex marriage in Indiana, Black people and women, and all the intersections thereof (for instance Black lesbians) should be very afraid of what this new law portends.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/the_rights_made_up_god_how_bigots_invented_a_white_supremacist_jesus/feed/915Rachel Maddow blasts conservatives’ pro-discrimination bubble: “They are listening to different voices”http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/rachel_maddow_blasts_conservatives_pro_discrimination_bubble_they_are_listening_to_different_voices/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/rachel_maddow_blasts_conservatives_pro_discrimination_bubble_they_are_listening_to_different_voices/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 18:15:00 +0000Luke Brinkerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925670On the surface, the government's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case a decade ago would seem to have nothing to do with recent uproar over Indiana's new "religious liberty" law, which provides a legal shield for individuals and businesses who deny services to gays. But MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued Tuesday night that both cases illustrate Republicans' brazen willingness to buck public opinion, all in the service of placating their right-wing base.

Some background: As you probably remember, Schiavo was a Florida woman left in a persistent vegetative state after suffering a massive heart attack in 1990. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, sought to have her feeding tube removed, contending that she had expressed a desire not to kept artificially alive. But Schiavo's parents fought back against their estranged son-in-law's efforts, triggering a years-long legal battle that eventually embroiled then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, President George W. Bush, who intervened in 2005 to keep Schiavo's feeding tube in place. Contemporaneous polling revealed overwhelming public opposition to the government's intervention, and Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed under a court order. As the country debated yet another hot-button issue on Tuesday night, her family marked the 10th anniversary of Schiavo's death.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/rachel_maddow_blasts_conservatives_pro_discrimination_bubble_they_are_listening_to_different_voices/feed/93Tucker Carlson lashes out at critics of Indiana’s anti-gay law: “These are jihadis!”http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/tucker_carlson_lashes_out_at_critics_of_indianas_anti_gay_law_these_are_jihadis/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/tucker_carlson_lashes_out_at_critics_of_indianas_anti_gay_law_these_are_jihadis/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 17:14:00 +0000Luke Brinkerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925868When we last heard from the petulant conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, he was scolding an aide to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for not being sufficiently ladylike in an email rebutting a story Carlson's Daily Caller had published about her boss. Then Carlson's brother, the spectacularly named Buckley Carlson, got in on the action, calling the aide a "whiny little self-righteous bitch." It was all very sexist and disgusting, and the Carlson brothers were duly banished from conservative media.

As members in good standing of the right-wing media, the Carlsons paid no price, so there was our good old chap Tucker on Fox News last night, weighing in on the new Indiana law that provides a legal shield for businesses and individuals who deny services to gay people on religious grounds, informing LGBT equality advocates that their opposition to the bill made them no different than "jihadis."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/tucker_carlson_lashes_out_at_critics_of_indianas_anti_gay_law_these_are_jihadis/feed/33Thanks, corporate America, for shaming Mike Pence! Now here’s a reality checkhttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/thanks_corporate_america_for_shaming_mike_pence_now_heres_a_reality_check/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/thanks_corporate_america_for_shaming_mike_pence_now_heres_a_reality_check/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 17:10:00 +0000Joan Walshhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925832Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s stunning change of mind, promising to “fix” his state’s bigoted “religious freedom” law only two days after stridently defending it on national television, is largely due to the economic backlash by business leaders against the legislation. From Apple to Salesforce to home grown, Republican-led Angie’s List, top corporations made clear they will punish the state for transgressing the rights of LGBT Americans. It was awe-inspiring, and it nudged Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to reverse himself and announce he won't sign that state's version of the Indiana law (as did pressure from WalMart).

But Pence’s quick “religious freedom” turnaround made me think of another notorious Indiana law that has gotten no pushback from the business community over the years: Its 2005 voter identification legislation that paved the way for a rollback of voting rights across the country.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/thanks_corporate_america_for_shaming_mike_pence_now_heres_a_reality_check/feed/95Republicans’ 2004 problem: Why they still can’t get right on gay marriagehttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/republicans_2004_problem_why_they_still_cant_get_right_on_gay_marriage/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/republicans_2004_problem_why_they_still_cant_get_right_on_gay_marriage/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 15:10:00 +0000Simon Maloyhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925386Shortly after George W. Bush won reelection in 2004, Karl Rove talked to the New York Times and had nothing but good things to say about how same-sex marriage was playing out as a political issue. Bush’s victory over John Kerry was powered by social conservatives who also helped 11 states pass constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, and Rove wanted everyone to know that this issue was a great one for Republicans. “People do not like the idea or the concept of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman being uprooted and overturned by a few activist judges or a couple of activist local officials,” he said. “I think people would be well advised to pay attention to what the American people are saying.”

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/republicans_2004_problem_why_they_still_cant_get_right_on_gay_marriage/feed/5Stephen King slams Indiana’s anti-gay “religious freedom” law in the best way possiblehttp://www.salon.com/2015/03/31/stephen_king_slams_indianas_anti_gay_religious_freedom_law_in_the_best_way_possible/
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/31/stephen_king_slams_indianas_anti_gay_religious_freedom_law_in_the_best_way_possible/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:38:00 +0000Luke Brinkerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925339After landing in the news for his spat with Maine's Tea Party governor, bestselling author Stephen King made another foray into politics on Monday night, blasting Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which provides a legal shield for individuals and businesses who refuse services to LGBT people on religious grounds.

King -- who lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana for part of his childhood -- took to Twitter to colorfully express his vehement opposition to the law, which GOP Gov. Mike Pence signed last week:

[embedtweet id=582706860236525568]

Following an outpouring of business opposition and popular protest, Pence announced Tuesday that he would seek a legislative "fix" to the law, which he asserts does not provide a license to discriminate. It is unclear what form that fix will take, however, and given that the law's purpose is to provide a legal defense for individuals not to take actions they claim "substantially burden" their religious beliefs, there's ample reason to be skeptical that the law will not be wielded by religious conservatives to justify anti-LGBT discrimination. While the law provides discriminators with a compelling legal defense, LGBT Hoosiers have no recourse of their own, as Indiana lacks a law banning anti-LGBT discrimination.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/03/31/stephen_king_slams_indianas_anti_gay_religious_freedom_law_in_the_best_way_possible/feed/17The right’s Indiana debacle: How their ignorance about discrimination backfiredhttp://www.salon.com/2015/03/31/the_rights_indiana_debacle_how_their_ignorance_about_discrimination_backfired/
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/31/the_rights_indiana_debacle_how_their_ignorance_about_discrimination_backfired/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:35:00 +0000Elias Isquithhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13925154During the early hours of Tuesday afternoon, Mike Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana, held a press conference about the state’s new anti-gay (or pro-religious liberty) law, which has inspired a massive wave of public condemnation and outrage. Even more than the law proposed in Arizona last year — which also ignited a national controversy and was ultimately vetoed by the state’s Republican governor — Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” would allow business owners to refuse service to customers if they believe doing otherwise would be a violation of their faith. The go-to example is a small-time baker who doesn’t want to cater a same-sex wedding.